I could not find enough topics here for this case, so I decided to make a dedicated thread for all that visual prettiness Gw2 lacks in some aspects.
This is only for suggestions/issues that do not involve combat balance (like aoe rings) or terrain (like invisible walls, that is something that will always be there).
I am not sure I would want to be responsible for updates (topic) here but I will if it will be needed and if enough material will be provided we can do some division by types (like clipping/effects/animations/skins separately)
Armor Skins
General: anything that has long enough “free” parts (long coats, long sleeves) is animated poorly – most coats only bend in like 3 places below belt instead of smooth animation, making even the most awesome looking armors look bad upon and during any kind of movement.
Selection of armor skins: Unlike Gw, GW2 has really few outstanding unique armor skins (that can be recognized without too much effort) – too many small details (that vary depending on armor) that are hard to catch with eyes without losing the focus on surroundings. This is worsened by the fact professions directly share armor types.
Light armors: too many long skirts (?), minimal selection of pants, short skirts and footwear
Medium armors: almost every single one of them looks themed after one or another ranger armor from gw1. Small selection of plain assasin-like suits and pocket-filled jackets/shorts for engineers
Heavy armors: Again, too many small details on most armors. Very few really platy ones and no counterparts for what would be the most awesome armors from gw1.
Having both helmet and shoulders with show/hide option, some attention might be turned on how armors actually look without some of the most spiky and big ones.
I will also merge this to armor skins: sheathed weapons always are positioned in accordance to body, not armor. For example, a for an armorless char (or, example, thief with duelist chest and almost any leggings) weapons will float in air, sometimes too noticably away from character.
Animations:
All of one handed weapon animations when drawn during character movement. 2-handed sword are maintained in balance during movement, while as all one-handed weapons are being abruptly swung around. This is before all case for sylvari with their strange running (even more with a speed boost) resulting what look like a really heave oversized sword being swung around like its a toothpick. By just running. Looks okay with small daggers. But not with desert eagle sized guns and swords with maces that could easily go for two-handed ones.
Added to that: there are pistols that are positioned with handheld part backwards (like they always should) but they are drawn with an opposite hand. Same with daggers – characters hold daggers upside down but somehow draw them from opposite side.
I could suggest switching daggers/pistols to the sides they are actually drawn by, and move big 1h weapons to back ( this will also cure senseless clipping of weapons being attached to side of long coats)
to be continued… (trying to get into one event dungeon with my guildies..)